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It has long been an industry joke that the ultimate design would simply be a piece of glass. Well such teasing may not be far off the mark after it was revealed Apple has been granted an exclusive patent to create ‘all-glass’ casings.

Picked up by AppleInsider, patent No. 8,773, 848 awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office on 8 July 2014 covers ‘Fused glass device housings’ and lists Jonathan Ive amongst the applicants.

An extract from the patent explains Apple now has the rights covering “An electronic device [which] may have a glass housing structures. The glass housing structures may be used to cover a display and other internal electronic device components. The glass housing structure may have multiple glass pieces that are joined using a glass fusing process.”

It continues: “Multiple planar glass members may be fused together to form a five-sided box in which electronic components may be mounted... Opaque masking material and colored glass may be used to create portions of the glass housing structures that hide internal device components from view.”

Approved Apple Patent Filing

Of course on the surface making an iPhone from glass sounds ridiculous. Cracked iPhone screens are famously common with research claiming 26% of iPhone screens crack within 2 years. Furthermore Apple has been here before with the iPhone 4 and 4S, whose glass front and backs proved the bane of millions of users. Apple swapped back to metal for the iPhone 5 and 5S and the leaked iPhone 6 dummy units appear to use more metal than ever before.

So what has Apple considering a seemingly ill-advised U-turn? In word: Sapphire.

Earlier this week an iPhone 6 facia leaked confirming long time rumours that the new handset will have a Sapphire crystal display. A move away from the Gorilla Glass used in previous iPhones and by most smartphone and tablet rivals.

In the video from Marcques Brownlee that resulted from the leak (below) the key attribute of Sapphire became clear to all: its durability. Not only did it withstand vigorous scratch attempts by keys and a knife, it also bends like no other material we have seen previously in handset design – even including the flexible LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Round.

Therefore it isn’t a stretch to see Apple using Sapphire front and back in a future iPhone and even an iPad. Noticeably the patent points out the finish can be coloured to hide internal components and fused to create a seamless fit – the ultimate extension of Apple’s unibody concept.

Furthermore Apple is clearly confident in its plans as it has moved quickly to stop rivals from easily following suit. Even if Apple’s own experience has shown enforcing patents is far from easy.

When will such iPhones appear? From a patent it is impossible to tell. It also isn’t guaranteed that Apple will definitely move in this direction, even if we can see where Jonathan Ive has been spending his time.